Gov. Chris Christie never fails to get a fawning reception from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski when he appears on the MSNBC program “Morning Joe.” But not everyone in the Brzezinski household holds the Republican governor in such high regard.

Christie tangled with Brzezinski’s husband, Jim Hoffer, of WABC in New York, at a news conference Tuesday in Long Branch when the TV reporter challenged how the administration distributed foreclosure funds.

Hoffer wanted to know why the state had distributed only $4 million of $300 million in federal funds from a program called Hardest Hit. Christie said a moratorium on foreclosures slowed the program (though days he later clarified that the once-troubled program has now given out $40 million).

“I’m not sure that really rings true,” Hoffer shouted.

His voice rising before a crowd gathered for a school groundbreaking, Christie said, “If you don’t think it rings true, it’s not a question.”

In the brief back-and-forth, Christie told Hoffer to get his facts straight. “Listen, do me a favor, don’t show up once in every blue moon and think you’re going to dominate my press conference,” he said before moving on.

In the end, the reporter seemed to have gotten what he wanted. The Auditor overheard Hoffer whisper to a Christie aide, “He misplayed it, didn’t he?”

But two weeks ago, the three men played nine holes at the Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson, one of the country’s most stunning courses. “No politics, just who hit their drives farther,” said Lesniak, who has recuperated and appears to be feeling fine.

But wasn’t the purpose of the threesome, he was asked, to allow Bollwage to get better acquainted with Norcross — political power broker, newspaper owner and arguably the most influential Democrat in New Jersey — should the Elizabeth mayor run for governor?

“I’m the wrong person to ask on that because I’m convinced Cory Booker is going to run,” Lesniak said of the Newark mayor. “If Booker does not run, I would say this: The odds are as good as anyone else running.”

Lesniak said he thinks Booker will run. “I’m convinced Christie is not going to run,” he said.

As the Union County Democrat put it, “If he has aspirations to be president of the United States, and I believe he does, it only makes sense for him not to run for re-election and continue promoting himself.”

Why Sweeney’s a Packers fan

Speaking of sports, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) — said to be itching to run for governor or the U.S. Senate — got a ton of publicity after saying he planned legislation that would ban replacement referees from working professional games in New Jersey after his favorite team, the Green Bay Packers, lost to the Seattle Seahawks, 14-12, because of a bad call Monday night. But The Auditor had a question. Why is Sweeney, a South Jerseyan with roots deep in Eagles country, a Packers fan?

“I was born in 1959,” Sweeney (D-Gloucester) told The Auditor. “I started watching football in 1964.”

That, he explained, was the golden era of the Packers’ Vince Lombardi, who coached high school football in Englewood and is buried in Middletown.

“My father always told me, if you pick a team you’ve got to stick with the team,” Sweeney said. “You can’t be a fair-weather friend.”

Sweeney isn’t the only New Jersey politician to have strange taste in teams. You might not know it from listening to his recent promotion of the Jets, but Christie is a Dallas Cowboys fan.

Watson Coleman shows the ‘Show Me’ candidate

Jefferson City is 1,000 miles from Trenton, but Missouri’s politics are reverberating in New Jersey anyway.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer) last week introduced a resolution condemning violence against women and the assertion that “women have biological mechanisms to prevent pregnancy during rape.”

Coleman’s action was prompted by U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a Republican Senate candidate in the Show Me State, who said women usually don’t become pregnant from a rape because in “legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

“I intend to send a copy over to the state where he lives,” she said. “I intend to send it to a female legislator and their associations. A person who thinks this way is a danger to us women ... I just want everyone to be talking about it and reminded what an ignorant fool he is.”

But Rick Shaftan, a conservative pollster and political operative with clients in his native New Jersey, has been promoting Akin on Twitter despite pressure on the congressman from fellow Republicans to quit the race. Shaftan said he’s gotten friends to donate “a couple thousand dollars” to his campaign.

And as for the resolution? “They’ve hit the clown level now,” he said, adding, “They’ll probably all vote for it.”